Pastoral and Occasional Liturgies: A Ceremonial Guide

Article excerpt

In this ceremonial guide Mitchell helps the reader to construct occasional and pastoral offices, expands the rubrics of the Book of Common Prayer, and describes the use of material from the Book of Occasional Services. Apart from the more obviously pastoral liturgies, he covers the celebration of the Daily Offices, the sanctification of the year and episcopal services. The model assumed for these prescriptions is a mid-sized and middle-- church Episcopal parish. He begins by presenting a short historical context for each rite. He then goes on to give a detailed, step-by-step description of each service and its preparation. A member of the Episcopal clergy or a lay liturgical minister will thus find a reliable and sensible guide to the planning of worship not covered by Mitchell's earlier work on Lent, Holy Week and Easter and Galley's work in the same series on the celebration of the Holy Eucharist, to which works cross-reference is made.

The implied audience for the work is those actively concerned with the daily worship of the Church. …